Signholders having a frame for supporting display cards, sheets or signs are known in the art. One type of signholder, for example, includes a metal bracket into which the sign can be inserted and which provides a metal support frame around the entire periphery of the sign. Such signholders typically are designed to be mounted onto a pedestal, hung from a bracket or mounted to a convenient surface.
It also is known to provide a plastic type signholder which can be mounted along one edge in a metal retaining bracket. These plastic signholders have been developed in one or two pieces with the plastic material providing the support for the sign, poster or card.
An example of such a signholder is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,132 which is assigned to the same assignee as the assignee herein. That signholder includes a two-piece molded plastic signholder and bracket which provides a top bearing surface between the two pieces to clamp the signs or cards therebetween. The two molded plastic pieces are reverse mirror images of one another and include positive engagement interlocking members along their bottom edges to align the two pieces. The retaining bracket is U-shaped including inwardly inclined bearing edges which bear against inclined bearing members provided along the bottom edge of the two pieces to ensure that the upper surfaces of the two pieces bear against one another to provide the desired clamping. Although such a signholder has been found to be useful, the molding of the two pieces to include the positive engagement and alignment members is somewhat intricate thereby providing increased molding costs.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,300, owned by the same assignee as the assignee herein, there is disclosed a signholder having two planar pieces for engagement in a bracket wherein the planar pieces do not require the positive engagement members or the inclined bearing edges formed along their bottom edges and which still provided the desired bearing surface and alignment of the planar pieces.
An advantage achieved by the herein invention is to permit individual pairs of planar pieces or panels of different thickness to be accommodated in the signholder and bracket by means of a specially constructed insert for retaining the pair of panels within the bracket. Each panel of the pair is of the same thickness or gauge, yet a panel pair having a different thickness of individual panels can still be accommodated in the insert with equal efficacy. Further, the invention enables the individual panels to be cut from large plastic sheets which are not panels molded to a selected size and dimension. Thus, variant sizes of sign holders can be made without relying upon expensive molds to make a specific size sign holder.